This research is exploratory in considering the unique socio-cultural context of South Korea, where the present government is responding to the demand for English language training. The study asked the question: What do mothers experience when sending their young children to a private English institute, so called English kindergarten, instead of a regular preschool? A qualitative approach was used to analyze the in-depth interviews with 19 mothers who sent their young child to an English kindergarten. Mothers stated that their young child needs to be a competent English speaker. The mothers expected that an English kindergarten would prepare their child better for the elementary school English curriculum than a regular preschool. The study revealed that English kindergartens symbolized the precedence and the privileges of the elite because of their high tuition fees, native-speaker teachers, and small class sizes. The mothers showed a sense of pride and vicarious satisfaction from sending their child to an English kindergarten. However, the mothers recognized that English kindergartens put more emphasis on cognitive learning instead of the social development of children. It was almost impossible for mothers to communicate with the native-speaker teachers about their child. The mothers seemed to overlook their child's struggle to adapt to an English Kindergarten. The findings of the study raise issues concerning the boom of teaching young children English in Korea.

This study investigated the causal relationships among the elderly, looking at social participation, depression, self-reported health, and life satisfaction. It was especially focused on the mediating effects of depression and self-reported health on the relationship between social participation and life satisfaction. From the 2006 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, data for 4,155 elderly over age 65 was analyzed with structural equations modeling with Amos 7.0 and sobel test. Major findings were as follows. First, social participation of the elderly has a negative influence on depression and a positive influence on self-reported health and life satisfaction. Second, self-reported health has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between social participation and life satisfaction. Third, the direct effect of depression on life satisfaction was not statistically significant, while the direct effect of social participation was significant. Therefore, depression was not proved as a significant mediator. This study tested the effects of social participation on depression, self-reported health, and life satisfaction empirically and confirmed the partial mediating model, in which social participation improves the elderly's self-reported health, which in turn improves the elderly's life satisfaction. These results suggest the importance of an integrated approach for the healthy and successful aging and the diverse types of social participation in an elderly person's quality of life.

The purpose of this study was to present a developmental direction of the early childhood social education in kindergarten by investigating the mother's perceptions using the focus group interview. Mothers who have 4~5 year old children were selected for 3 focus group interviews. The following results were obtained: 1) The mothers recognized early childhood social education as an essential step before entering elementary school. 2) The mothers were found to have recognized that the cultivation of the various social situations of the children in kindergarten would be a very important task of the kindergarten, because kindergarten is a place for children to be introduced to social experiences for the first time in their lives. 3) Most of the mothers have the perception that early childhood social education showed positive effects on the development of their children. This perception was based on the evaluation of the social educational effect of kindergarten compared to that of elementary school.

The purpose of this study was twofold: One was to investigate the structural relationships among communication with father and mother, ego-identity, and school adjustment. The other was to test the structural equivalence among researched variables between middle and high school samples. The subjects were 419 sophomores of middle and high schools. The major findings were as follows. 1) Communication with the father had direct and indirect effects on adolescents' school adjustment, while communication with the mother had only an indirect effect on school adjustment. 2) Ego-identity had a direct effect on school adjustment, and mediated the effects of communication with father and mother in school adjustment. 3) Multiple-group analysis revealed that middle and high school groups had the same structural relationships, but had different regression weights.

The study was designed to explore mothers' and teachers' beliefs on children's literacy development by comparing their beliefs with the whole language approach. Also, their literacy practices at home and in the classroom were compared and how their literacy beliefs and practices were related was investigated. 176 mothers and 72 daycare teachers participated in this study in Kyunggi-do. Mean, standard deviation, frequency, t-test, and multiple regression were employed to analyze the data. The results showed that the mothers' age, mothers' education, fathers' education and family income mostly predict the mothers' literacy beliefs. Also the teachers' age, education, and their learning experiences with the whole language approach are the main predicting variables in the teachers' beliefs. In practices, the mothers' age, number of children, and fathers' education are independent variables predicting the mothers' practices. The teachers' age, education, interest about the whole language approach, learning experience, and number of children in the classroom are independent variables into the teachers' practices. Overall, teachers showed a higher level of beliefs on the whole language approach and did more literacy practices than the mothers.

Nowadays, ethical consumers are increasing and they consider social values such as worker's human rights, environment and animal's welfare as key criteria in purchasing products. This study focused on the academic and practical research of ethical consumption, in which the needs and interests are now growing globally. This study addressed the concept, trend and practices of ethical consumption as well as seeking methods to support and promote ethical consumption. It examined the concept and types of ethical consumption from the perspective of the philosophy on ethical consumption. Ethical consumption was defined as a behavior that intended to improve the environment and the welfare of people and animals by purchasing products produced according to sound ethical principles and avoiding products that are made through the exploitation or the damage of people, animals and the environment. It also dealt with the practices of ethical consumption such as the fair trade movement, Clean Clothes Campaign, boycott, local food movement, animal's welfare movement. In conclusion, I suggested that consumers, companies, governments, and NGOs should make an effort to promote ethical consumption.

This study intends to provide foundational data for enhancing the welfare of customers purchasing digital products through analyzing the notes from written on-line reviews. The data used for the analysis are 6,342 on-line reviews for cell phones and digital cameras released from November, 2007 until April, 2008, which was posted on Naver Knowledge Shopping from November, 2007 until June, 2008. Through the on-line reviews, this article analyzed the evaluations on the digital products' hardware, software, design, service, price, and other criteria and the customers' emotional experience in the process of purchase, use, and possession. According to the results of the analysis, negative evaluation and emotional experience were originated from the company's information provision methods and purchase process. In addition, insufficient information searches in the process of online purchases, consumers' low right consciousness, and impolite on-line reviews were also problematic. Customers' evaluations and emotional experiences on digital products were conducted in a complex way. Based on that, this research makes suggestions in the company's marketing, customer education, and theoretical aspect.

In this study, the effect of clothing color preferences of adolescents on their self expression desires and fashion interest were investigated. These investigations were intended to understand some psychological aspects of adolescents and to make a contribution to guiding them in forming self identities and expressing themselves confidently through clothing. This research was based on 452 copies of questionnaires distributed to middle and high school students living in Seoul and other metropolitan areas from the middle of March to the beginning of April, 2008. The results were as follows. First, there was a significant difference in clothing color preference and clothing color tone preference between male students and female students. Second, the factor analysis which has been performed by taking assimilation, individuality, recognition, and image management as composing dimensions of self expression desire shows significant differences between these dimensions. Third, the difference in the self expression desires according to clothing color preference showed that the group preferring cool colors and the group preferring warm colors possessed the same highest self expression desires. And, it was revealed that the clothing color preference was a significant variable influencing fashion interest. Fourth, the effect of self expression desire on the fashion interest degree showed that recognition was the most significant factor and image management was the next.

From the environmental adaptation point of view, the clothing habits made by the thermal sensation and clothing weight of elderly women have changed according to the thermal sensation and health condition. The purpose of this study was to obtain the basic data for developing healthy and comfortable clothing for elderly women. Clothing weight, thermal sensation, clothing microclimate, resistance to cold and heat of 198 elderly women in Taejeon were surveyed from October 9, 2007 to October 19, 2007. 1. Clothing weight per body surface area was of total clothing weight, of underwear clothing weight, of outerwear clothing weight, of upper clothing weight, and of lower clothing weight. 2. More than 90% of the respondents replied that they felt comfortable when the temperature inside the clothing was and humidity inside the clothing was 30.2%. 3. The elderly women were more sensible to cold than to hot, those who felt cold had a tendency to wear heavier clothing. 4. The appeal rate for physical pain of older and lower income people, especially those with an income under 1,000,000 won, was higher than that of others. On the other hand, the lower the subjective economic level, the younger they were, and the more the monthly average income was, the higher the rate of mental pain. 5. The heavier the total clothing weight was, the higher the appeal rate for general pain.

To provide basic data to manufacture superior brassieres, we performed a survey on the wearing and buying habits, and preference of functions and materials of brassieres for 189 women subjects in their twenties. The results of this research are as follows; Style and size are the most important in purchasing brassieres. Flat breasted and sagging breasted subjects were dissatisfied in the fit of the upper cup. 70% of the subjects were ignorant of their brassiere size. Sagging breasted subjects were less satisfied with smoothness, softness, and weight when wearing their bras in comparison with the other types. Conical type breasts were common amongst women in their 20s. They are more likely to wear size 75A and 80A where the full bust girth is 10cm larger than the under-bust. They preferred demi cup brassieres with thin or moderate padding to full cup brassieres with thick padding. On the other hand, 56.8% of subjects wore brassieres all day. The subjects were dissatisfied with the slipping down of the shoulder straps. Large-breasted subjects were concerned more with dampness and the fit on the center front of the brassiere, and brassieres with too thick padding had a poor fit on the center front. Sports-brassieres which fit close to the skin and used stretchable fabric caused more itching and dampness and dissatisfaction in removal of the brassiere.

Now in the 21st century, all the industries in our world are rapidly changing, including fashion trends and customers' needs as well. Fashion textile planning is also developing towards the direction where it could satisfy the merged sensitivity and incentive of the customers through an idea. The purpose of this study is to accentuate the importance of fashion material planning in fitting conventional patterns and eco-benign fabric materials. Accordingly, this study is mainly focused on the reflection of fabric planning characteristics to show tradition containing comfort and naturalness. As mixing with established fabrics and blending with natural/functional fabrics, and conforming to the trend of the seasonal fabric, it has developed a new structure and pattern by changing the basic source of traditional patterns to a computer aided design system. Therefore, four different types of items were basically up-graded by fitting it in with traditional patterns.

The purpose of this research was to measure the effects of a health management program through a school homepage on Obese Female College Students. The subjects were confined to 70 Obese Female College students from S University, located in C area. They voluntarily participated in this study. The subjects were divided into two groups by the BMI (Body Mass Index) classification: overweight or obesity program group(PG, n=35), and overweight or obesity comparative group(CG, n=35). The results obtained are summarized as follows: First, compared with the CG, there was a significant decrease for waist circumference in PG, and a significant decrease for the variables such as fat mass, weight, %fat, and BMI in PG. Second, in the investigation of blood lipids change of PG, there was a significant decrease for TC, TG and HR-rest. On the other hand, there was a significant increase for HDL-C.

This study attempted to analyze the general and physical characteristics, the status of physical function, the type and number of current diagnosis and self-reported symptoms, healthy life mode and food preference according to self-rated health (SRH) of older adults (135 men and 270 women). It also attempted to assess the factors affecting the SRH standards in agricultural and fishery areas located in southwestern Korea. The subjects considered themselves as being 'good'(57.6%), 'normal'(29.6%) or 'poor'(12.85) SRH, meaning positive self-rating of health and it was found that the correlation between factors such as the gender, current marriage status, monthly wage, the reception of the government's livelihood subsidy and subjective economical status and the SRH were significant. Regardless of the categories of obesity, a large number of the participants rated themselves as 'healthy', but not statistically significant. The subjects who reported poor ADL and IADL capacities, indicators of the status of physical function, were significantly more classified to the 'poor' health category and vice versa (P<0.001). The reported chronic diseases in this study that have lasted more than three months, were lumbago, sciatica, arthritis, high blood pressure and peptic ulcer. The current ratios of smoking, drinking and exercise were 85.3, 39.0 and 18.6%, respectively. The less drinking and exercising there was, the higher the 'good' SRH categories obtained (P<0.05). The respondents who had less chance of eating sour and hot foods estimated their health status as being better.

This study was conducted to investigate the situation of internal facilities and sanitary management of elementary, middle, and high school foodservice in Chonbuk area. Self administered questionnaires were collected from 252 nutrition teachers and school dietitians. Statistical data analysis was completed using a SPSS 11.5 program. The results are summarized as follows: Approximately 99.2% of the subjects were women and those who were married accounted for 76.6%. Those in their 30s to 40s accounted for over 87%, those with more than 11 years experience accounted for 56.8%, and those 69.0% were regular nutrition teachers. Among the 280 school foodservice systems, 51.6% of the schools were located in urban areas and 48.0% in rural areas. About 68% of the schools prepared meals the conventional way and 32.3% prepared them the commissary way. The number of employees accounted for in the schools was 37.7% with 1 to 3 employees, 27.8% with 4 to 6 employees, and 25.4% with 7 to 9 employees. About 54% of schools have an expectance of school meal service for more than 11 years. However 67.5% of their facilities had not been remodeled since the implementation of the foodservice. As a result of the conditions of the school foodservice facilities, there were significant differences between elementary and middle & high schools; preparation room (p<0.01), toilet (p<0.01), and boiler room (p<0.01). About 62% of the nutrition teachers responded that they were dissatisfied with the situation of the facilities (e.g. size and materials of the kitchen, heating and cooling systems). The washing and disinfection methods in elementary, middle and high schools were very different, because they had no sanitizers and disinfectant guidelines. Therefore the governmental regulating agencies must review and approve of the plans prior to new construction or extensive remodeling of the school foodservice facilities. In addition, we suggest that it is necessary to provide practical sanitizers and disinfectant guidelines and other useful education.

The physicochemical and sensory characteristics of Kongnamulguk with commercial film-packed soy sprouts from domestic cultivars were investigated. The color determination showed that the solid part of Kongnamulguk had a light green color and did not change even when cooking for 9 minutes. The solid part of Kongnamulguk was much higher in insoluble dietary fiber than soluble dietary fiber. Soluble and insoluble dietary fiber of the soy sprout tended to increase upon cooking. The acceptability of the solid part of Kongnamulguk was negatively correlated with a bean odor and flavor, and a grassy odor and flavor, but positively correlated with a nutty odor and flavor. In addition, the acceptability of the liquid of Kongnamulguk was negatively correlated with a bean odor, a grassy and bitter flavor, while it was positively correlated with a sweet flavor. These results suggest that soy sprout with a less bean odor and flavor would be highly acceptable, so it would probably be suitable for Kongnamulguk.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the realities and problem cases that occurred in the establishment and management of elderly housing facility in order to suggest the recommendations that help to improve the problem cases. For this purpose, 21 elderly housing facilities, which were established between 1996 and 2008 in Korea, were investigated with a documentary research method in terms of founders, managers, locations, the number of housing units, how to move-in. Also the problem cases that occurred in the establishment and management of 21 elderly housing facilities were investigated. The results were as followings. 1. Main founders and managers of 21 elderly housing facilities were the special companies for elderly housing, building companies, and social welfare corporation. Changes in the founders and managers were caused by financial problems; More than half of 21 elderly housing facilities were located in Seoul and near area; About a half of 21 elderly housing facilities had 100~200 housing units; An individual unit of elderly housing facilities can be rented or purchased, rented only, and purchased only. 2. The problems in the establishment and management of elderly housing facilities were non-return of deposit money, illegal sale of housing units, non-public registration of elderly housing facility, false advertisement, and unfair contract. 3. The problems in the establishment and management were mainly caused by the weakness in the regal and administration system for elderly housing and the illegal acts of founders and managers.